


The Queer Board of Admiralties

by thepopeisdope



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Asexual Castiel, Bisexual Dean, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-07-25
Packaged: 2018-04-11 04:18:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4421057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepopeisdope/pseuds/thepopeisdope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Come on, Cas!” Charlie pleads with him, not for the first time. “It’ll be good for you, I promise! Everyone there is great—you’ll like them and they’ll like you!”</p><p>Castiel sighs. Ever since Charlie found out about his sexuality, she has been pestering him to accompany him to a meeting of their college’s LGBTQA+ club. He hadn’t meant to come out to her, of course, but being friends with the president of the queerest group on campus had a way of loosening one’s tongue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Queer Board of Admiralties

“Come on, Cas!” Charlie pleads with him, not for the first time. “It’ll be good for you, I promise! Everyone there is great—you’ll like them and they’ll like you!”

Castiel sighs. Ever since Charlie found out about his sexuality, she has been pestering him to accompany him to a meeting of their college’s LGBTQA+ club. He hadn’t _meant_ to come out to her, of course, but being friends with the president of the queerest group on campus had a way of loosening one’s tongue.

It had happened one night while they were studying.

Charlie had been ranting about her girlfriend at the time, Gilda, who she felt was becoming distant (it turned out she was cheating on Charlie, and soon after this came to light, Gilda practically dropped off the face of the earth). Charlie’s attention shifted to Castiel as soon as she noticed just how distant the conversation made him.

“Why don’t you date, Cas?” she had asked. “Are you waiting for the right person, or just for after college?”

This was the kind of questioning Castiel put up with on a near constant basis with his family. Coming from Charlie, though, it sounded much less judgmental and more honestly curious.

Castiel just shrugged. “I’m not very interested in dating.”

Something in his face must have said otherwise, because Charlie narrowed her eyes. “You know I can read you like a book, don’t you?” she said. “And I hope you know that you can tell me anything. Of anyone at this school, I’m one of the least likely to judge you.”

Charlie’s easy confidence in herself had made Castiel smile, and before he could think better of it, he found himself saying, “I’m asexual.”

They didn’t talk much more about it that night, but Charlie did tell him that, from what little she knew about asexuality, it made sense in relation to Castiel. As promised, she did not judge him for being asexual, nor for considering himself homoromantic.

She did, however, immediately attempt to recruit him for her “Queer Board of Admiralties”. The Queer Board of Admiralties was a group of Charlie’s invention, having been put into order when she took over what had been the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance club and turned it into something far more inclusive. Each member of the Queer Board of Admiralties represented a different division of the LGBTQA+ group, and were just about Charlie’s equals in club responsibility.

According to her, they didn’t have any asexual representation in their club.

Which, of course, would make him a shoe-in for the position.

Charlie has already begun dubbing him the _Ace Admiral_.

Speaking of, Castiel realizes that he has been completely tuning his friend out for the last several minutes. Luckily she did not seem to notice—she’s still ranting about acceptance and friendship and admirals, all blended together with pop culture references that go right over Castiel’s head.

From an outsider’s perspective, she probably sounds insane.

“I’ll go.”

Charlie comes to a stop mid-word. She leans in and grabs Castiel roughly by his shoulders, her eyes bright with hope. “Say that again,” she says.

Castiel sighs again, overexaggerating as much as possible. “I’ll go to your meeting. When’s the next one?”

Charlie beams. “Next meeting is tonight—we meet every Thursday and every other Monday. Meetings start at six-thirty for regular members, six for Admirals.”

“Am I an Admiral?” Cas asks, even though he is fairly certain with the answer.

Charlie stands up from the cafeteria table and begins gathering the remains of her lunch to throw away. She winks at Castiel and says, “You’re our ace-in-the-hole, Casanova!” Then she turns around and vanishes into the throngs of ravenous college students.

Castiel groans.

What had he just gotten himself into?

~

Castiel arrives at the designated lecture hall at five-fifty-five, and by then, Charlie and her Admirals are already gathered.

“Cas!” Charlie calls when he enters the room. “You made it!”

Then, of course, the other six people in the room turn and give him their undivided attention.

Castiel shifts nervously.

“Oh, don’t even think about backing out now, mister,” Charlie says, walking up to Castiel and grabbing his arm to physically drag him to the table in the front where the Admiral are gathered. She introduces Castiel to each member, pointing to each one as she goes. “This is Aaron Bass, our Admiral of the Gays, Bela Talbot, our Admiral of Pans, Balthazar, our Poly Admiral, Tessa Morton, our Admiral Against Binaries, Hannah Milton, our Trans Admiral, and, last but certainly not least, Dean Winchester, our vice president and Bi Admiral.” She turns to Castiel. “Cas, please introduce yourself and give us your Admiral title of choice.”

Castiel sighs deeply, resigned to his fate. He faces the group of expectant faces. “My name is Castiel Novak...” He hesitate for a second and Charlie elbows him sharply in the side, earning a snigger from a couple of the Admirals. Castiel rolls his eyes. “And I’m the Ace Admiral. Are you satisfied, Charlie?”

Charlie smirks and pats him on the back. “Very. Now have a seat.”

Castiel complies, taking the empty seat between Charlie’s place at the head of the table and Hannah Milton, across the table from Dean Winchester. Hannah gives Castiel a polite “Hello,” and then the meeting is underway.

Castiel hardly focuses on the contents of the meeting at all. He is new, after all, so he really can’t be expected to take part in conversations about fundraisers and how they have and haven’t worked previously, and how to best recruit more “civilian” members, as Charlie calls them.

So instead, he spends his time in his own head.

He recognizes Hannah from some of his classes, but had no idea that he’s transgendered—or that his name is Hannah, for that matter. He wonders what the story behind that is, but figures now is probably not a good time to ask. From what he has gathered the part of the meeting not exclusive to Admirals is more of a social hour than anything, so perhaps they will have the chance to speak then.

Aside from Hannah and Charlie, though, none of the faces on the Queer Board of Admiralties are familiar. Usually he would take that as a sign that he should avoid them—he’s an awkward kind of person, and that doesn’t usually mean good things when he is trying to make friends, let alone _keep_ them. And usually, once people find out he is asexual, they lose much of their desire to be around him. Some people think he’s a prude, some think he’s lying and hiding his “true” sexuality, and some just think he’s a freak.

It has made it hard for him to be comfortable opening up around people.

But, he reminds himself, Charlie knows he has this problem, and invited him to the club to help him combat it. These people have faced just as many—if not more—problems with society as he has, and as such, they won’t— _shouldn’t_ —be as judgmental as so many people are.

With that in mind, he focuses on studying his fellow Admirals.

Tessa uses gender-neutral pronouns, which, considering her Admiral title and general androgyny, is not surprising. Bela and Balthazar spend an absurd amount of time flirting. Hannah and Tessa are fairly quiet, but they seem to be united in that silence, leaning toward one another ever so slightly. Aaron, sitting across from Hannah, spends a good deal of time twisted in his chair staring at Dean. When he isn’t speaking or joking with Charlie, Dean is staring at Castiel.

Castiel doesn’t know what to think about that. He tries to avoid looking at Dean too frequently, but that proves easier said than done—he’s always been a sucker for green eyes.

The fourth time their eyes meet, Dean winks.

Castiel refrains from looking at him for the remainder of the meeting.

Before he knows it, Charlie is calling the Admiral’s meeting to close and more strange faces are filing into the room. Castiel watches from the side of the room as his fellow Admirals clear the table off and then cover it with boxes of pizza and cans of soda, while Charlie hooks her laptop up to the room’s projector and starts an episode of _Star Trek_. The room fills about halfway with students, all of whom sit munching on pizza and chatting amongst themselves, only some of them watching the opening scenes of the program.

Castiel is flabbergasted.

He is even more so when the opening credits come on and every conversation in the room comes to a halt so they can all recite the introductory words in sync with William Shatner. He thinks his jaw actually hit the ground when everyone began speaking.

That’s how Dean finds him, of course. “You alright there, Cas?” he asks, amusement thick in his voice.

Castiel blushes and snaps his jaw closed. “I… was not expecting that.”

Dean laughs. “Yeah, neither was I my first meeting. Not that I wasn’t fucking thrilled, of course, being as big of a fan as I am.” He sits in the chair next to Castiel, obviously uncaring that Castiel’s choice of row means they are too far back to hear the show. “Do you like _Star Trek_ , Cas?”

“I’ve never watched it,” Castiel replies.

“And you’re friends with _Charlie Bradbury_?” Dean says, shocked. “I gotta say, man, that’s almost _impressive_.”

“Thank you?”

Dean just smiles. After a minute or so passes, he says, “You didn’t look too thrilled to join the Board.”

“No,” Castiel sighs, eyes roaming around the room in search of Charlie, “I suppose I wasn’t.”

“Did Charlie force you into this?”

“Just about.”

“She did the same to me, you know.”

Castiel looks back at Dean. “Is that so?”

Dean nods. He looks down at his hands for a second before meeting Castiel’s eyes again. “I was pretty fucking closeted. I mean, I _knew_ I was bi at least, but I wasn’t comfortable telling people, or even acting on it. Charlie was only the second person to know after my brother, Sammy, and I _live_ with the damn kid so it wasn’t really a surprise when I found out he already knew.” Dean’s lips twist up into a smile. “I owe Charlie a lot. If it weren’t for her, I’d probably still be miserable and alone in this mess.”

From the way Dean speaks, Castiel can tell that he didn’t struggle too much when he came out. He would imagine having family support helps in that regard.

The thought makes Castiel’s throat close up.

“What about you?” Dean asks. “You’re… ace?”

Castiel swallows roughly. “Asexual, yes.”

“I, uh…” Dean clears his throat. “I’m probably gonna sound like an idiot for saying this, but… I don’t actually know what asexuality is.”

Castiel’s stomach sinks. _Here we go, then_ , he thinks. Here’s where he scares Dean away forever.

Which is a shame, really, because Castiel felt like things were going really well between them.

“It means I don’t experience sexual attraction and, personally, I have no interest in sex whatsoever.”

“Personally?” Dean repeats. “That varies for some people?”

Castiel hesitates. This isn’t how this conversation tends to go. “It… varies, yes.”

“Huh. What about romantic attraction?”

Castiel can’t help it—he stares.

Dean squirms uneasily under the attention. “What?” he asks. “Was that not an okay question?”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Castiel rushes to correct. “I identify as homoromantic.”

Dean nods, lips pursed. “How do you feel about burgers?”

Castiel quirks an eyebrow, a smile playing as the corners of his mouth. He thinks he sees where this is going. “I quite enjoy burgers,” he says.

“Good.” Dean grins. “Wanna get burgers with me after this? My treat, of course.”

As much as Castiel wants to accept, he is hesitant. “You don’t care that I’m…”

“What, that you’re asexual? That if we’re in a relationship there won’t be sex?” Dean shrugs, his grin remaining firmly in place. “I think you’re a cool guy, Cas, and on top of that, you’re pretty fucking hot. So, what do you say? Burgers?”

Cas smiles widely. “Burgers sound great.”

They leave before the meeting is over, and when Charlie sees her two favorite Admirals sneak out the door together, she squeals loudly enough to make the people next to her flinch.

~

Dean and Castiel’s first date goes amazingly well, and their second even better.

Their relationship isn’t always perfect, though. Dean has a few hiccups adjusting to a life without sex—primarily being a little extra cranky some days—and Castiel struggles to overcome the guilt of causing Dean to have to live without sex in the first place. Dean always insists that it’s fine, that he has no regrets in their relationship, that he loves Castiel just how he is.

Together, they deal with it. They work through their problems, and in the end, they’re stronger for it.

On the day of their wedding, six years later, Charlie acts as Castiel’s best woman—which Castiel’s brothers aren’t pleased about—and Sam acts as Dean’s best man. The rest of the members of the Queer Board of Admiralties from back at that first meeting are present, and make up a good deal of the wedding party. Hannah and Balthazar specifically remain some of Castiel’s closest friends.

When Charlie tops the night off with a long-winded “I told you so,” Castiel doesn’t even try to refute it.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr!  
> <http://thursdays-fallen-angel.tumblr.com>
> 
> Have a prompt you want to see? Message me!


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